While President Obama has tried in his 4 years in the White House to expand health coverage to as many people as possible, health policy experts describe his opponent Mitt Romney's mission as one that will focus on controlling costs first.
After that, the theory goes, more people would buy coverage in due time, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Michael Tanner told MedPage Today, noting the difference in philosophies between the two candidates.
Romney has campaigned for months with the promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- full implementation of which is a clear focus for the president -- but he's been light on details about what he would replace the law with. The policy points and philosophies the Romney camp has articulated seem to be fixated on lowering cost and heightening competition in the health insurance marketplace.
For example, the former Massachusetts governor supports allowing the sale of health insurance across state lines, a policy also once offered by President George W. Bush. That move aims to lower the cost of insurance by quickly increasing the number of insurers in each state.
Stephen Parente, PhD, director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute at the University of Minnesota, simulated what would happen if health insurers were allowed to compete for patients in all 50 states, regardless of what state the policies were issued from; his study was published in 2010 in the Journal of Risk and Insurance.
02/11/2012 : By David Pittman / MedPage Today.
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